The Iowa football team’s season flipped after its 0-2 start.

After months of speculation that a season would even take place, and a summer of turmoil for the program, the Hawkeye football team lost to a bad Purdue team and blew a 17-0 lead to fall to Northwestern in the first two weeks of the season.

Since then, similar to Ihmir Smith-Marsette on his second trip into the end zone in Iowa’s 28-7 victory over Wisconsin, the Hawkeye season has flipped. Unlike Smith-Marsette after his flip against the Badgers, the Hawkeyes didn’t get up limping after an 0-2 start.

In the six weekends since Northwestern stunned Iowa on Halloween at Kinnick Stadium, the Hawkeyes are 6-0, winning by more than 21 points per game and securing three victories in trophy games.

“After we started 0-2, we had a whole bunch of people talk about us and wondering if all the offseason stuff hit us,” defensive end Chauncey Golston, who tallied nine tackles and a sack against Wisconsin. “And we rattle off six in a row. I’m excited to see what comes in the future.”

Iowa’s victory over Wisconsin capped the team’s six-game winning streak to end the regular season.

Players in the Black and Gold danced to “Jump Around,” Wisconsin’s signature song, at the end of the game, and after the final whistle, some members of the team did snow angels in the blanket of white that had covered the green turf inside Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes defeated the conference rival that had evaded them four years in a row.

Kirk Ferentz cried in the locker room addressing his team, and Golston and some of his Hawkeye teammates had trouble containing their smiles in postgame interviews.

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Who would have thought, back after the Northwestern game, this season would have so much for Iowa to smile about, and so much to celebrate?

I remember, a couple hours after Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras threw a game-sealing interception to the Wildcats, media members still in the press box at Kinnick Stadium were discussing what this season was going to turn into.

The Hawkeyes had just lost their first two games by five combined points. At 0-2, the season was far from lost, but it wasn’t looking good. I thought maybe Iowa could salvage the season and finish 4-4 or so.

But to be 6-2 at the end of the regular season and a likely top-15 team in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings after the way the season started? That’s quite the flip.

“The group of guys we have always look forward and push each other to be better,” Smith-Marsette said. “We came together, kept hammering at the rock, finally we got things going. Once we got it going, we never looked back. The guys on this team are resilient and they are willing to bounce back. They aren’t going to let what happened in the past deter from the future.”

Iowa can continue its streak, keep hammering at the rock, in its Champions Week game against Michigan on Saturday night at Kinnick Stadium. Maybe, if all goes well for the Hawkeyes, they could even be in New Year’s Six bowl consideration.

“If you’re working with the right people, you’ve got a chance for success,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “… We’re hardly done.”

The Hawkeyes aren’t done, but if they were, the season would be a success.

Quite the flip, indeed.

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